Included on Unnatural History I, and in reworked forms on How to Destroy Angels (New Remixes and Recordings).

A ritual ambient 16-minute track (with plenty of gongs and other metallic sounds), and a voluntarily unplayable B-side which existed — or didn't — in various forms depending on the edition. Subtitled “music for the ritual accumulation of male sexual energy”; don't ask me if it works. The music is pretty good, not as special as their later works though.

Mostly live recordings by Zos Kia, a short-lived band composed of John Gosling, Min (female vocalist) and Jhonn Balance; Sleazy only did the mixing. This is pure industrial music — noisy, disturbing, angry, very different from Coil's later records. Features a chilling version of “Here to Here” with female vocals by Min; the record as a whole is rather sketchy though.

The first major Coil album; industrial tinged with post-punk — everything here sounds filthy and dissonant, angry, bitter or tragic. Some catchy songs (“Panic”, “Restless Day”), a lot of darkness and weirdness, twisted strings and brass instruments over rusty mechanical loops. I can't say I like every track on it, but the sound they had on this album was quite unique — I could totally understand someone having this as their favourite Coil record!

One of the band's masterpieces and an essential record for anyone interested in industrial music… though at this point Coil were already getting a lot more melodic and emotional than most industrial is. No noise here, in fact this gets close to a very twisted, decadent and tragic gothic songwriter album — starting with “The Anal Staircase”, a slightly evil-sounding but catchy song based on a sample from Igor Stravinsky's Sacre du Printemps, followed by the gorgeous and wistful “Slur”, a fanfare, a beautifully tragic homage to Pasolini, a Leonard Cohen cover, a crazy song with animal yelps and licking noises, a really beautiful closer… One fault this album has is its inconsistency — it doesn't really flow all that well, and I tend to skip some of the shorter tracks. Still, you need this.

If you like it and want more industrial Coil, get Scatology and Unnatural History: Compilation Tracks Compiled.

Alternative versions, outtakes, odds and ends from the Horse Rotorvator sessions; some are interesting, many sound half-finished, few are memorable. For completists only.

“The Wheel” is a post-punk single, which for some reason wasn't included on any other album or Unnatural History compilation (even though a video was shot for it). Not bad, not essential either. Later copies of the record replaced it by its B-side and added “Keelhauler”… making it a single without the A-side? A bit forgettable, honestly.

Included on Unnatural History II. (Except for the commercials tracks, which were on the LP and are included on Unnatural History III.)

A rejected soundtrack for the film; if you liked the most melodic, cinematic instrumentals on Horse Rotorvator (e.g. “The First Five Minutes after Death”), this is in the same vein — good stuff, though not quite as memorable.

The most industrial record in Coil's discography after Transparent? A collection of early tracks, including the Sickness of Snakes EP (in collaboration with Boyd Rice, before the artists fell out as Rice began to exhibit fascist views). The music here goes from intriguing and strangely beautiful to downright nightmarish. It's a bit niche, but if you like Horse Rotorvator, Scatology and generally are into industrial, you should give this a listen.

Included on Unnatural History III (why so late?).

This one reminds me both of Aphex Twin's Windowlicker and Nurse with Wound's Alice the Goon — though it was released long before either! A perversely poppy, psychedelic rhythmic track with wordless female vocals on the A side, and a noisy, slightly demonic industrial B side. Bit of a curio on its own maybe, but it's good.

If you like the crazy cover art, check this list: The Album Art of Savage Pencil (Edwin Pouncey).

Coil goes psychedelic… and they go psychedelic pretty hard! Acid house elements and crazy electronic experiments, everything much less tortured than what came before; some darkness is still there but it's no longer the oppressive kind, more like a really weird trip. (As the story goes, Jhonn and some other members were on drugs all the time during the recording sessions.) Very few (undistorted) vocals here, some of which are courtesy of Little Annie and Marc Almond of Soft Cell — both very good songs. There's a lot of variety in the album too, some tracks are outliers in the band's discography. Love's Secret Domain is one of Coil's most unique albums, and that's saying something; were it not for the few minimal parts that sound sober and a bit boring (dark ambient didgeridoos), this would be a 10/10 in my book.

If you want more like this: get Backwards (which should have been the following album).

… Or if you want more electronic dance Coil: “A.Y.O.R.” on The New Backwards or Backwards, “Protection” (or “Proto-Protection”, which is a longer version), the two themes from Blue, “Nasa Arab”, “First Dark Ride”, “The Snow”; “Theme from Gay Man's Guide for Safer Sex” if you're including chillout… maybe the hour-long acid jam “Mayhem Accelerator” (though it's not as good)… Yup, they're a bit all over the place! Maybe just get Nasa-Arab / First Dark Ride and The Sound of Musick, you'll have most of them.

Some of the lyrics for the title track come from William Blake's “The Sick Rose”, others from Roy Orbison's “In Dreams”.

If you liked “The Snow” on Love's Secret Domain, here are some remixes! Harder beats, sometimes more psychedelic. Recommended if you're into techno.

A rare case of a remix album that's probably more worth your time than the original. This is still ritual ambient but weirder, more psychedelic, sometimes close to musique concrète. Some of the remixes were made by Jhonn, some by Sleazy, and one by Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound (which would also appear on Lumb's Sister — one of the project's best records in my opinion, and a good entry point into NWW's discography!)

Not an essential record, but recommended if you're into dark ambient.

A collection of B-sides and alternate versions from the LSD sessions — much better than Gold Is the Metal was for Horse Rotorvator! The slightly perverted jazz-ambient of “Omlagus Garfungiloops” and the hypnotic techno with tribal elements of “Nasa Arab” are highlights in Coil's entire discography; other tracks bring back a little of the industrial vibes of past records. Of course the band has many proper albums that I would recommend before this, but if you liked Love's Secret Domain, this is definitely worth getting.

“Airborne Bells” is included on Unnatural History II; “Is Suicide a Solution?” is a slightly different version of “Who’ll Fall?”, included on Stolen and Contaminated Songs.

Very emotional industrial music — every sound on this record is haunted by death. Even if you already have the two compilations above, this is worth listening to as a standalone record… it's among the best things they've done in this style.

The 2019 Threshold Archives reissue surprisingly adds “Mayhem Accelerator”, which is an hour-long acid techno jam (!) — a 12-minute edit of which had been released on the Brainwashed Brain in the Wire compilation. Interesting (is this what one of their drug trips sounded like?), but honestly not very good.

Included on Unnatural History II and The Sound of Musick.

Two short techno tracks composed for the film. Too short to be a satisfying record on its own (get one of the compilations above instead), but it's pretty cool.

“ELpH is the entity Coil use to describe what musical compositions come out of the equipment that are sometimes unrehearsed or consciously thought of.”

“Protection” is probaby my favourite of their electronic dance music tracks. The ELpH tracks are completely different: psychedelic ambient, between glitchy and crystalline if that makes sense. A surprising combination but I like this EP a lot. (If you like the ELpH tracks and want more, consider getting Zwölf and Protection.)

Included on Protection: see below.

Compiles Born Again Pagans, pHILM #1 and bonus tracks.

Pretty much an expanded edition of Born Again Pagans, which is still the best thing here — though I like the entire compilation; the symphonic version of “Static Electrician” is nice, one or two tracks seem to foreshadow A Thousand Lights in a Darkened Room. The untitled (unfinished?) track with only vocal samples is really cool too. 40 minutes of untitled sketches/outtakes make this a “only for fans” record, but I like it better than Worship the Glitch. (The rhythms make it work!)

“Nasa-Arab” also included on Stolen and Contaminated Songs; “First Dark Ride” also included on Unnatural History III.

A pretty great electronic EP; two experimental ambient techno tracks that still include some ambient passages, industrial weirdness then really good beats.

A compilation released to fund Jhonn Balance's rehabilitation treatment, featuring contributions by Nurse With Wound and Current 93 — some tracks or versions are exclusive.

“Heartworms” is arguably the most important track here — a dark, rhythmic song in which Jhonn sings about his alcoholism. Peter Christopherson's “In My Head a Crystal Sphere of Heavy Fluid” is a very good ambient track with oriental inspirations (which he would continue to explore in his post-Coil solo works). “Bone Frequency” (a NWW side-project?) is a pretty cool rhythmic track. The Nurse With Wound tracks are more on the noisy dark ambient side (though not taken too seriously), and Current 93 is a nice long atmospheric folk track. Both have released better works (cf. last section), but all in all, Foxtrot is a good record — and gives a pretty good glimpse of what “England's Hidden Reverse” is about.

Another soundtrack for a Derek Jarman film, featuring ambient reworkings of “How to Destroy Angels”, spoken word bits by actress Judi Dench… meh, I like some of the ideas in there (the coldness and weirdness of the choirs in “Cave of Roses” for instance) but the album as a whole never grabbed me. In fact I always got bored of it before the end.

A mostly atmospheric, half-industrial, half-electronic compilation including many soundtrack works (The Unreleased Themes for Hellraiser, Themes for Derek Jarman's Blue) plus a few exclusives. Less essential than their main albums of course, but it's a good listen — “Another Brown World” and “Contains a Disclaimer” are highlights. As are the themes from Blue if you're into dance music!

Many recent Threshold Archives releases are for completists, including plenty of half-finished, untitled outtakes you don't need; this one is pretty cool to have though, as a compilation of electronic tracks — both dance music and ambient, even new age — and includes really good ones that were unreleased before, like “Journey to Avebury” (yet another OST for Derek Jarman) or “Theme from Gay Man’s Guide to Safer Sex”. Consider getting this if you liked Unnatural History II.

Sparse ambient / glitch soundscapes. Which sounds like something I'd be totally into, but… to my ears, this sounds like a collection of interludes or elements from unfinished tracks. Things never get interesting enough for active listening, and they sound too disjointed to create a real atmosphere either. My least favourite of the ELpH releases.

Various atmospheric industrial experiments — a piano intro, a series of loop-based hypnotic tracks (“Stoned Circular”), a glitchy song (“Blue Rats”), some dissonant weirdness (“Green Water”)… It might be considered a minor album in their discography, but I find myself coming back to it often — “Refusal of Leave to Land” is one of their most beautiful tracks, the others have a very intriguing mood, some are even rather catchy. A semi-hidden gem. (And if you were frustrated by seeing no “essential” record recommended for this era in the introduction — this is the one I'd get!)

A mixed bag, though with some real gems. “Lost Rivers of London” is one of Coil's most haunting songs. “First Dark Ride” is a fantastic electronic track that goes from exotic ambient to weirdness to house. “Baby Food” is a really nice synth ambient piece, and “Wrong Eye” is Coil's “Windowlicker”. Some of the material here is really filler though — the 12″ version of “Panic” sounds just like the album version, only a bit longer, the “Music for Commercials” jingles are interesting but ultimately not that memorable… So yeah, it's worth cherrypicking from.

Included on Moon's Milk (In Four Phases).

Here begins another era for Coil — lunar, introspective, peaceful. The first EP in the solstice and equinox series features two versions of a mellow, wistful organ drone track with wordless vocals… not pastoral in a typical way but you wouldn't expect that from Coil, would you? It's beautiful and unlike anything they had done so far. (If you like it, check out The Remote Viewer as well!)

Included on Moon's Milk (In Four Phases).

The mood from the spring EP isn't gone, but things get much tenser and weirder — glitch, drone with vocals, a crazy final track that's nearly noise with high-pitched vocals… very good as well.

Included on Moon's Milk (In Four Phases).

My favourite of the four and one of Coil's very best records, this one has its share of atonal weirdness but feels more emotional, much more intimate — and with a sense of the tragic at times. “Amethyst Deceivers” is a classic (one of the band's best-known songs), but for me the highlight is “Rosa Decidua”, a superb duet featuring ghostly backing vocals by Rose McDowall and spoken poetry by Jhonn. Other tracks contrast in surprising ways, like the macabre “The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant”.

Included on Moon's Milk (In Four Phases).

Possibly the most melancholic in the series; apart from the strange and disorienting “North”, everything here is very wintery and beautiful. Ends with a beautifully sad… Christmas song, if you can believe it, sung by Rose McDowall.

Coil's drone project, “psychedelic” in as literal a sense as music can get: each track is named after a particular drug and sounds like it's designed to bring the listener into an altered state. It's more complex than you might think, with subtle progressions. Don't expect this to sound like Coil, but if you're into drone or willing to get into it, it's a great album!

If you want more Coil drones, check out Time Machines II, Live One, Queens of the Circulating Library… and if you include noise, Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil. (There's also ANS but it's not as good.) (Might as well plug another of my lists while I'm at it: Drone Recommendations.)

Twenty minutes of the sounds a sentient space probe would make after taking hard drugs. Rhythmic ambient glitch — spacey, mechanical and cold, a little silly in its weirdness at some points (“eeeeelph… zwööööölf…”). Not essential but I like it, it would be my second ELpH recommendation after Born Again Pagans.

Part of the 20' to 2000 series by raster-noton: twelve 20-minute EPs by twelve electronic experimental artists (many names I like in there, I should check the others out sometime).

Two long, superb atmospheric tracks and three shorter, much more dissonant ones. In spirit, it reminds me of A Thousand Lights in a Darkened Room but more peaceful (less industrial, more ambient) and with fewer tracks… it's very good as a whole, though I play “The Sea Priestess” and “The Mothership and the Fatherland” on their own more often than I listen to the entire album.

Even more lunar and introspective than the seasons EPs that came before, more fluid and polished, very long progressive tracks with repetitive mantra-like spoken (or whispered) vocals. It's varied but flows very well, and none of the tracks sound like anything they had done before. One of their absolute best.

“Are You Shivering?” is brooding yet inviting, “Red Birds Will Fly Out of the East and Destroy Paris in a Night” is a long, trippy Berlin School-influenced instrumental, “Red Queen” is jazzy spoken word and piano that teeters on the verge of darkness, “Broccoli” is tender and just a little bit macabre, “Strange Birds” is glitchy, atonal and contemplative, and “The Dreamer Is Still Asleep” is a surprisingly straightforward soothing and beautiful song.

Volume 1's weirder sibling — more dissonant and unpredictable, with an interestingly similar structure: “Something” is brooding yet inviting, “Tiny Golden Books” is a long, trippy Berlin School-influenced instrumental, “Ether” is spoken word and piano that teeters on the verge of depression, “Paranoid Inlay”, “An Emergency” and “Where Are You?” are ambiguous and unsettling, and “Batwings (A Limnal Hymn)” is… well, I'll leave you to discover it. If you liked the first volume, this is a masterpiece as well. And I really like how the two albums mirror each other.

(The first part of “Batwings (A Limnal Hymn)” is based on “Musaeum Clausum” by Thomas Browne. The second part is sung in “a language only Jhonn knows”… and the song was played at his funeral. Coil's best closing track, and among their most beautiful ever.)

Do you like drone? This is an entire album of psychedelic drone, with occasional spoken vocals courtesy of Dorothy Lewis (who is an opera singer and Thighpaulsandra's mom). Then it's only the slowly shifting drones, the kind you can trip or meditate to. Very good if you're into that; if you want something eventful, it's not for you. So make it one or two stars depending on your affinity for drone.

(“It's in the trees! It's coming!” is a sample from Kate Bush's Hounds of Love… You probably know this already but it took me embarassingly long to get into Kate Bush and find out about this. She's a genius.)

Do you like noise? This is a full album of psychedelic noise — not harsh, but still quite intense! Some dissonant parts may make you feel a bit queasy (“I Am the Green Child”), some feel like a force being hurled at you (“Tunnel of Goats”). Very good if you're into the genre, it has a different feel from either typical noise or your typical Coil record (if there is such a thing). I'd also recommend it if you're into drone. (Make it one or two stars depending on your tolerance/affinity for noise.)

(“Beige”, “Lowest Common Abominator” and “Free Base Chakra” all form a single track with three different titles; “Tunnel of Goats” is a single track too, split over eighteen CD indices. So that makes it a four-track album really.)

a.k.a. Time Machines from the Heart of Darkness (which was the name of the show). See Live One below — this is the first disc, sent as a bonus with pre-ordered copies of Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 2.

Compiles the four seasons EPs, with new art by Steven Stapleton.

Longer, more meditative tracks with plenty of drones and loops, Tibetan bowls, recitations of species of birds… and now a very beautiful melancholic closer. This used to be just a bonus disc for the limited edition of Moon's Milk (in Four Phases); the Threshold Archives reissue with “Bankside” turns this into a full-fledged album — and a really good one too. A hidden gem.

Ambient with hurdy gurdy, not dissimilar to Spring Equinox but arguably even better — melancholic, mysterious, warm… some elements (especially with the traditional instruments) make me feel as if I've known this music forever. It's deeply moving too. The album as a whole sounds a bit more like an extended single than a “proper” album — track 2 (atonal, glitchy, sparse) is really quite good but mostly works in contrast and shadow of the first, then track 3 is an alternative version of track 1. The two reissue bonus tracks are also reworkings of the same but go a bit further.

If you like this, get Spring Equinox and Copal too.

(Unpopular opinions ahead…)

What are you looking for in a live album?

This is a good performance, a good setlist, even including several tracks that haven't come out in studio form; there's energy, even a bit of rage and madness in it. If you like a good straightforward live album, you probably should get this.

… I'm picky about live albums. Frankly, I don't care much for them unless they're really special in a way the studio recordings aren't, or significantly better than them; and as good as it sounds, Live Four falls short of either. There's little here that isn't done better on their other recordings, so I rarely ever feel like listening to it.

Same but not as good, honestly. Jhonn lacks energy, the sound quality isn't that good… You can skip this one unless you want to have everything.

Better! A noisier performance, featuring several tracks from Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil (Coil's noise album). I like it, though it lacks cohesion a bit — the best part is the 17-minute finale. Wish they had done a full performance like that, though that could have polarized the audience.

Now we're talking! A live drone album, offering a more lively and “electric” take on both Queens of the Circulating Library and Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil (their drone and noise albums, respectively). This is the more consistent recording of the four and feels quite different from the studio material, which makes it the most interesting record in the series in my opinion. I like it.

Also, you actually get two recordings — disc one has longer, more hypnotic tracks, disc two is livelier (it even still includes “Amethyst Deceivers”, which is apparently a near-obligatory song in Coil live performances) and has an absolutely manic ending.

… I'm still giving this only one star because you need to be into drone to like it, and you don't really need any of the numbered live albums anyway unless you're a dedicated fan. The only live album you really need by Coil is …and the ambulance died in his arms.

… But hey, what's this? Only available as a bonus disc in the Live Box, this is a very special recording, consisting solely of a 40-minute version of “The Universe Is a Haunted House” — one of the creepiest tracks the band has ever made. It was a highlight in Live Four and is even better here, with long, tense passages in which you only hear drops of water falling… and you can sense the growing tension between Sleazy and Jhonn, who were beginning to fall apart as a couple at the time — foreshadowing the demise of the couple and band. The most unique of their live records; doesn't sound like any of their other recordings.

A glitch EP. It's alright if you want more like “Remote Viewing 2”, “Glowworms / Waveforms” or ELpH tracks in general, but it doesn't go further than that.

Enjoyable but impersonal drones.

The ANS is an experimental synthesizer with an unusually high number of oscillators that generates music from drawings, invented in the late 1930s by Evgeny Murzin. Coil were invited to use it, but since the device is very difficult if not impossible to really control, the results are the machine's work more than Coil's. Slowly shifting, psychedelic, cold. There are two editions of this album: a 1-CD version and an expanded 3-CD version (disc 1 is the same), with a bonus DVD including trippy abstract visuals.

(The machine was named after Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin. Listen to him sometime if you haven't! He was a mystic who associated sounds with colours, tried to walk on water, declared things like “I am God! I am nothing, I'm play, I am freedom, I am life. I am the boundary, I am the peak”. Striking, unconventional, colourful compositions.)

Did you like the sadness and anguish from Scatology and songs like “I Don't Want to Be the One”? You're in luck — the moon becomes bloody again! With bitterness, sadness (“All the Pretty Little Horses” is as depressing as the Current 93 version)… yet still retaining some of the ambiguous, introspective beauty the band had found in the previous years. “Sex with Sun Ra” is my favourite here. Only sold as a CD-R in live shows at first, this might have been a rough first draft for an upcoming album rather than a fully finished one but it stands up really well. The 2006 version is more polished than the 2004 one.

Selvaggina, Go Back Into the Woods (which I'm still sleeping on at the time of writing) seems to be a live version of this, with a few more tracks.

“Black Antlers (Where's Your Child?)” is inspired by — or even a loose cover of “Where's Your Child?” by Bam Bam, a surprisingly dark, even downright evil acid house track from 1988.

A very moving live performance, with long, mellow tracks — most of them alternative versions of studio ones, close to rhythmic or tribal ambient. This sounds like a swan's song for Jhonn. He had now broken up with Peter, his alcoholism problem was getting worse and he almost didn't make it to the show. Is it possible to sound tired in a good way? Everything here sounds crepuscular in more ways than one. The music itself isn't really sad though — there is a lot of beauty in this warm, half-numb, half-drunk recording.

If you want one live album by Coil, this is my suggestion.

After Jhonn's death in 2004, Coil could no longer continue. As a final album, Peter Christopherson decided to rework the Backwards recordings from the 90s (still unreleased at the time), giving them quite a different mood… The Ape of Naples sounds warmer, more emotional, and much more dramatic than any other version of Backwards. It's introspective in an uncommon way, the work of two souls torn apart by death (death is the recurrent theme here). The instrumental parts are beautiful, yet Jhonn has never sounded as anguished as he does here. It's not just affecting, it's almost painful to listen to.

… Can I be honest here? It's hailed as the band's masterpiece, and I can't pretend it's not the highlight of Coil's last period, but I've never been entirely sold on it. This sounds like a tearjerking tribute from Peter to Jhonn more like an album by Peter and Jhonn; the pathos is overwhelming, and behind it, well… The Ape of Naples is a bit of a mess. There are tracks I love here (“Heaven's Blade”) but also tracks I hate (! — “Tattooed Man” might be the only Coil track I honestly don't like at all). The styles and mood vary quite a bit. Some reworkings are the worst versions of the tracks. I'm not really convinced by the sequencing. And “Going Up”, a cover of a TV theme show sung in falsetto by François Testory (?)… just doesn't sound like such a fitting ending. Well, except for the very last words, spoken by Johnn: “It just is.” — that bit is perfect.

The original version of “Amethyst Deceiver” is on the Autumn Equinox EP; original “Teenage Lighting”s are on Love's Secret Domain.

An odd but forgettable 11-minute track — unrelated to “What Kind of Animal Are You?” on Live Two, which was a manic, noisy jam with Jhonn practically yelling; this is a glitchy, dissonant, meandering track with wordless female vocals. Sold with a bottle of absinthe in a collector's box designed by Peter Christopherson. This is probably selling for ridiculously high prices nowadays.

A companion record to The Ape of Naples (same source material, reworked at the same time), but with a surprisingly different feel: electric, hypnotic, psychedelic… There's an oriental sound on a few tracks as well. And Jhonn sounds alive this time! The pathos is not toned up to crazy levels like on The Ape of Naples, and I like the record so much better for it. Even though it is a bit patchy, I feel like I'm really getting here what I expected from Backwards a long time ago, only with a different production. I love this. In fact it's easily one of my favourite Coil records.

… And if you wanted to listen to the original Backwards, Danny Hyde has got you covered! This is a mastered version of the original 90s recordings, and they sound drier, more rhythmic, more industrial — they also retained more of the electronic dance music influences you could hear on Love's Secret Domain.

Do they sound dated? … Honestly, yeah, a bit. They're also not as polished as Sleazy's reworkings. But they have a different charm here, and the sequencing makes more sense (“Backwards” works better as an opener, and the version of “Fire of the Mind” that closes the album here really blows the one on Ape out of the water). It's a great album, only a bit overshadowed by the subsequent versions.

… This cover art isn't really Coil-like, is it? I've heard it was supposed to be a painting by Steven Stapleton instead — maybe the one that was later used for Swanyard (a collection of Backwards demos I intend to sleep on).

Peter Christopherson's solo project following Jhonn's death; it sounds quite similar to late-era Coil, beautiful, atmospheric, peaceful and strange… crepuscular too. One major source of inspiration here is Thailand, where Christopherson was living at the time; the album also comes with footage from a traditional festival in Krung Thep that has some really disturbing imagery (self-mutilation). Some of the tracks here overstay their welcome a bit, but all in all it's really beautiful; “A Time of Happening” is haunting in a very good way.

In the same vein as Form Grows Rampant but somewhat sparser and subtler; there are fewer highlights but it's also more consistent. Initially meant to be the soundtrack to a film about “Thai temple tattooing”. Really good as well.

Quite a bit weirder and more dissonant than the first Time Machines! Some tracks could be described as psychedelic post-industrial drone, there's a progressive electronic influence on a few tracks too. Very good stuff.

A collaboration between Sleazy and glitch/electronic artist COH.

This debut EP contrasts beautifully between sparse, crepuscular melodies on acoustic instruments and very clinical electronic sounds; there's an obvious Japanese inspiration in it too. I like it a lot!

(The packaging is also unusual, though gimmicky — it's an octogonal CD in a folded paper sleeve which is even supposed to be destroyed when you open it; also the title the record was secret, as it is a code to be entered on soisong.com.)

Quite different from qXn948s, this one is surprisingly poppy but in a completely synthetic way, with computer-generated vocals in an unknown language. It's also very laid back and happy, cute even. A polarizing album; definitely not among the artists' best, but worth a listen if you're curious.

A peculiar kind of split release — it was supposed to be a set of two EPs, one by COH and one by Sleazy, but Peter passed away before the project was completed. So the physical object this time is a CD containing COH's EP, a “decaying unplayable black disc […] featured as a symbolic memorial piece” for Peter Christopherson, and a QR code linking to unfinished tracks that are supposed to be part of the project.

COH's music is sparser, with piano featured prominently. I like “2012” very much — the shorter two tracks with synthetic vocals, not so much. Sleazy's tracks are quite good, pretty much what you'd have expected from him: glitchy electronics, melancholic, exotic.

= Danny Hyde + Peter Christopherson.

Sounds a bit like slightly dissonant, electronic remixes of late Coil tracks? Not bad, but a bit forgettable.

The other major band Peter Christopherson was a part of. Required listening for anyone interested in industrial music — they were the pioneers of the genre.

Their first album, The Second Annual Report (1977), is a monster — provocative, unpleasant, ominous, “anti-music”. And a landmark in experimental music history. The A side tracks are much better than “After Cease to Exist” though, which honestly gets a bit boring… I recommend getting the 2-CD reissue, the bonus tracks are worth it.

D.o.A: The Third and Final Report (1978) is more developped and “musical”, though still very nihilistic and disturbing; it contains “Hamburger Lady”, among the darkest tracks I've ever heard.

20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979) is the album that's usually recommended to newcomers, and sounds a bit like dissonant, low-energy, murky corruptions of pop songs. Interesting too, but I don't like it as much.

Heathen Earth (1980) is a live recording that has a consistent atmosphere while still sounding deeply hopeless, ugly and misanthropic — my favourite of their early works.

… But my favourite record by them so far is Part Two: The Endless Not (2007), which sounds like classic industrial yet also displays the influences of the other projects Peter, Genesis, Cosey and Chris took part in over the years (Coil, Psychic TV, Chris and Cosey…). It's intricate, dark of course, but also emotional and beautiful in its own messed up way. Fascinating record.

Coil, Current 93 and Nurse with Wound formed a kind of trifecta — three British projects that broke new ground for industrial-related music, all of them prolific, distributed by World Serpent* and often collaborating with each other. (Well okay, it's mostly C93 and NWW collaborating a lot — Coil, not so much.) Anyway, if you're interested in one, you're bound to hear about the other two. David Keenan wrote a book about them called England's Hidden Reverse.

* … which I don't miss, considering how expensive their CDs were and how many months it took for any of them to arrive.

= Steven Stapleton. Dadaistic sound collages, surrealistic dark ambient and accidental industrial!

I have way too many Nurse with Wound records in my collection, so I made a list for that project too → Nurse with Wound: Ranked and Reviewed. It still only includes about thirty of them, so if you want something more complete, this list has over a hundred (!) → Guide to Nurse With Wound.

tl;wr —

　Soliloquy for Lilith (1988) if you want eerie drones,
　Homotopy to Marie (1982) if you want nightmarish musique concrète/collages,
　Thunder Perfect Mind (1992) if you want long rhythmic industrial pieces that sound like a washing machine in a good way,
　Spiral Insana (1986) if you want something that messes with you between repetitions, leitmotivs and interruptions,
　Sugar Fish Drink (1992) if you want something varied and playful,
　Alice the Goon (1995) if you want a good concise EP with three different styles (i.e. funny, then strange, then dark/atmospheric).

(You can skip Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella (1979).)

= David Tibet. The style of this project varies a lot, between extremely sad folk (Thunder Perfect Mind, the TheInMostLight trilogy), terrifying apocalyptic industrial (Nature Unveiled, Dogs Blood Rising), equally disturbing dark ambient experiments (I Have a Special Plan for This World), melancholic folk (Earth Covers Earth, Black Ships Ate the Sky), even rock with slight metal influences at times (Lucifer Over London, Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain)… with interesting combinations like Birth Canal Blues (mostly melancholic yet tense piano and voice, then all hell breaking loose with unexpected outbursts of demonic distortion).

I like scary, weird and melancholic C93 very much but I'm not into super sad acoustic C93, so I'm probably not the best person to give advice! (I like all the records cited above except for the first three, but these first three are very popular.)

Check out boyo's Current 93 Ranked and knittingduke's A Guide to Current 93.

A project by Stephen Thrower and Ossian Brown, both ex-members of Coil (in different periods). A bit reminiscent of Coil's “lunar” records, but significantly weirder, more dissonant and all instrumental. (Or maybe… this is a big stretch, but like a way, way weirder and non-rhythmic ˙O˙Rang?)

Wounded Galaxies Tap at the Window was meant to be the title of Coil's third “pink clamshell” album. I think it lives up to the name! The Visitors is also very good.

He's collaborated with Coil, but also Spiritualized and Julian Cope and has more affinity for rock music than pretty much anyone else on this list. He's talented, brilliant at times, though also provocative in a bad way and very self-indulgent.

I recommend the Some Head EP: two long tracks that unexpectedly change styles, somewhere between prog rock, Nurse with Wound and quite a few other points of reference. It also features Jhonn on vocals. If you like it, I, Thighpaulsandra and The Golden Communion are both worth getting in my opinion. There's a fair chance you will love some songs and want to skip whole 20-minute tracks though!

Genesis P-Orridge's “anything goes” project, going from industrial to art rock to acid house to psychedelic rock to… maybe others still! The line-up was ever changing too, Gen being the only constant member. (Jhonn and Peter were part of it for a short while, though you might not tell simply by listening to the music; PTV also featured David Tibet of Current 93, Monte Cazazza, Z'EV…)

My favourite is Dreams Less Sweet (1983), which goes from experimental industrial soundscapes to simple and beautiful songs, constantly surprising, amazing throughout. It's an all-time favourite of mine.
For art rock laced with dark, weird, industrial soundscapes, get Force the Hand of Chance (1982).
For more straightforward, catchier/poppier rock, get Allegory and Self (1988).
For acid house, get Towards Thee Infinite Beat (1990).
For psychedelic rock, get either Trip Reset (1996, more atmospheric/crepuscular) or Hell Is Invisible… Heaven Is Her/e (2007; catchier, more energy).

= Ivan Pavlov. If you like the very clean electronic glitch sounds of the raster-noton label, you should check him out!

Strings (2007) is my favourite work by him — quite original, hypnotic glitchy minimalism, with the second part featuring electric guitar, the third one saz and oud. Music Vol. (2016) is all hyper minimal, black pulses and oscillations. Above Air (2006), another good one, is more ambient — it was dedicated to Jhonn Balance after his death, and is the last record released on Coil's Eskaton label. (Also see Soisong above.)

= Trent Reznor. [insert picture of him wearing the “God Please Fuck My Mind for Good” T-shirt]

Reznor cited Horse Rotorvator as an inspiration, named his side-project How to Destroy Angels after the Coil record, Backwards was originally meant to be released on his Nothing Records label, Coil remixed several Nine Inch Nails tracks on Fixed, Further Down the Spiral and Recoiled… I know, the project probably needs no introduction, but just in case:

　It's essentially rock music with industrial influences, catchy songs, excellent sound design (and lyrics that sometimes read like an angsty teenager's diary). It was my favourite band when I was 16 and my gateway band into industrial music.
　The Downward Spiral (1994) is my favourite record of the project, a concept album about self-destruction / a man's life falling apart, with impressive production. I still think it's a masterpiece!
　Pretty Hate Machine (1989) has a more 80s sound with synthpop influences and some really catchy danceable tracks (e.g. “Sin”); it's also inspired by Skinny Puppy (compare “Down in It” with “Dig It”).
　Broken (1992) is super angry with really cool distorted guitars. Peter Christopherson also directed the movie version of it, which is supposed to look like a snuff movie. I have no intention to ever watch it.
　The Fragile (1999) is a double album that's more emotional, tender at times, and forays into many different genres.











… and then there's Marc Almond (of Soft Cell), Rose McDowall (of Strawberry Switchblade), Autechre (!)… and probably many others I'm forgetting or are less familiar with!






For Coil's influences, check out daveiscoolyeah's list: Influences: Coil.






Some other bands who have been influenced by Coil that I know of (I'll add more in time, feel free to tell me if you know about more of them):

British Murder Boys (brutal, psychedelic industrial techno — brilliant stuff) have sampled Coil — and Surgeon (part of the duo) has released a tribute mix to Peter Christopherson which you can stream and download for free on SoundCloud.

Murmuüre is a psychedelic atmospheric black metal project that counts Coil among its influences; the artist's other project Chimères, a work in progress, sounded closer still (though most of the earlier tracks have been deleted).

Ulver cite Coil's Scatology (?!) as an influence in the booklet for Perdition City. (They used to be a black metal band but have turned to trip hop on this album and kept changing genres since.)






… And now for completely subjective, personal recommendations of music that's reminiscent of Coil (again, feel free to tell me yours!):

　I thought Unearth Noise's Prayer and Resonance (spiritual, psychedelic post-industrial drones) had been influenced by Coil before the artist told me he didn't know them.
　Nocturnal Emissions is… very atypical droney industrial in which every sound sounds like a drone or clockwork mechanism.
　For more melancholic ambient like The Remote Viewer or the Spring Equinox EP, try Rasa by Colin H. Van Eeckhout a.k.a. CHVE.


Recommended by Maxime:
　COH – Love Uncut (colder and more precise than Coil, but still lively and dizzying, also John Balance sings on one track);
　Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works Volume II for the atmosphere on some tracks although Aphex Twin tends to be lighter and more melodic at times.
　For drone, maybe Éliane Radigue and Pauline Oliveros?


Rory Gibb of The Quietus has compared Shackleton's Music for the Quiet Hour / The Drawbar Organ EPs (tribal ambient, UK bass) to Coil's work in his review.